Connor Nichols's Reviews
Atelier Lulua is a fun, comfy RPG adventure, continuing the addictive alchemy loop this series comes to provide, with an enjoyable battle system and a really addicting loop of collecting and gathering materials, Lulua is just a great relaxing RPG to enjoy, even though it may not do anything too inventive in terms of the series, it’s still an enjoyable entry, whether you’re new to the series and unfamiliar with Rorona’s adventure, or excited to see the trilogy extend to yet another game.
So at the end of it all, this is really only a game I can recommend if you don’t mind a typical action romp with a bit of strategy to it, and if you don’t mind the very, very repetitive nature you’ll be dealing with along the way. Some aspects of the management portions definitely remind me a bit of some older games such as the Princess Maker series, but otherwise Princess Guide ended up being rather uninteresting.
The overall package still won’t light the world on fire or anything, but if you’re a fan of crypto puzzles, they’ll play very well here and will give you plenty to solve for the value. And if you’re new like me, you may find this just as fun to get into like I did! Either way, it’s a fun casual puzzler that’ll get you what you seek, and not much more.
So honestly if you haven’t played it before and are a fan of DRPGs in general (even ones like Etrian Odyssey), you do owe it to yourself to give Sapphire Wings a shot ASAP. As for Sword City? Consider that an interesting curio, but not much more than that. Still, for $40, this is an absolute steal of a DRPG double pack, and the price is worth it for Sapphire Wings alone.
It’s pretty peculiar that it took me so long to even cover this, and I honestly forgot what made me drop the game and push it back in the queue all those years ago. Yet after finally spending more time with this game, I think I know why, and unfortunately, it just never clicked for me, both back in 2018, and here in 2021. Be wary of this city.
Even if the dialogue can be a bit crude with toilet humor at times and thus, not amusing to everyone, this game is still very well worth your time if you’re at all a fan of games like Baraduke and Cybernator, and for $6 Exposionade DX is an excellent value.
So all in all, with just buying Prinny 1, you don’t get too much here, just a mediocre, tricky platformer reproduced in a very barebones fashion, and while it has all the content from the original game, that’s not really much of a plus if not a single attempt was made to un-blur the game assets. Come for the funny humor, great challenge and interesting stage designs, and stay if you can tolerate the barebones porting and lackluster visuals in docked mode.
Still, for newcomers to these quirky platformers, I absolutely encourage you to pick up Prinny 2 over the first game if you can only choose one, for it’s well worth your time despite the lackluster porting found here. It pretty much takes all the major annoyances from the first games and smooths them out to make a funny adventure you should play through at least once.
By far the aspect that ruined this experience for me the most though, was the godawful performance on Switch. If you must play this game on this console, play on docked, as you’ll have at least some enjoyment out of it, even if the dips and hitches will still drive you insane, but playing this in handheld mode/on a lite is just asking for punishment and pain beyond your wildest imagination.
Collapsed is a very dull roguelike, with a very high learning curve and performance issues that making playing this (at least in handheld) a lot more frustrating than it should be, while also lacking the magic that make other roguelike games so good. The controls are still very comfy and the action is fine, but there’s really no reason to pick this one up over the many, better roguelikes for less money due to the difficulty balancing and framerate problems, unless you’re really not one to mind attempting things tons and tons of times just to clear one world, and having to grind a lot as a result.
In some ways, the progression problems caused me to prefer The Woolies Strike Back, while in others, I truly felt that Choice Provisions did a great effort in making the most polished Bubsy game to date. I just wish it was up the same outstanding qualities as Woah Dave and Runner 2, and wasn’t afraid to let the player go through the game the way they wanted to despite the short length, rather than being in fear of it.
Mary Skelter may not be the greatest note for me to end out on, but it does show what the Vita was good at, and that was allowing RPG developers to push out experimental new IPs with little risk, and in the case of Mary Skelter, it led to a full fledged mix of Remake/Sequel on the Switch. This wasn’t the final first person RPG released for the system, but still is a solid one, even if I feel some others were better.
It’s still fun to find hidden upgrades and access new areas, especially out of order, and overall this remains an enjoyable experience I aim to 100% someday in my free time, but if you were hoping for something as charming or well-crafted as the Alwa games, I’m sad to say you won’t get that here, but rather a simple and fun metroidvania that’s just a bit rough around the edges, yet still very enjoyable for fans of the genre.
There’s really not much else to gripe about, save for how some of the songs are better than others, and thus having to play a boring one after a few greats can be a real drag, but otherwise Mad Rat Dead is a very fun, very well-made rhythmic platformer that I’m very glad I gave a spin. For $40, this is absolutely a steal for rhythm fans, and while the songs themselves may not convert someone into a new fan of this genre, the charming characters definitely might.
It may still feel a bit like Deja Vu coming from 3, but this is a must-play action game nevertheless, and would set the stage for the crown jewel of the collection. If you have to pick one game from the 3 to buy individually, this still isn’t the one of choice, but it’s pretty damn close, and immensely enjoyable nevertheless.
In conclusion, Electronic Super Joy II is more of the same goodness that the original game had, only with not quite the same level of excitement. There’s still tons of well-made challenging platforming levels to enjoy here, even without the two DLC packs, and this works as a perfect bonus for those who enjoyed the other games in the ESJ series, but for a sequel it definitely doesn’t feel all too “new”, just more of the same, solid platforming action as before, only with not nearly as many of the absolutely outstanding levels that the first game had.
However, while the Kunai do add a lot of depth to your movement, I didn’t really find much else that made this game stick out, and the lackluster checkpoints do make certain parts more frustrating than they need to be. Still, if you love the genre, KUNAI is still worth a playthrough.
The inconsistent difficulty and excessive visual effects just don’t lead to a good game, and really I can’t recommend this game at all, especially for the crazy $13 price. Literally the only reason this game would be worth checking out is due to the trippy shock value aspects, and only if you’re a hardcore fan of that stuff willing to look over the clunky maze gameplay surrounding this one strange adventure.
If this had a speedrun mode and fixed the awful controls, it could honestly be a decent enough speedrun title, but unfortunately, the complete lack of replay value and general bugginess of Bucket Knight make it a pretty bad experience, only really worth checking out for curiosity purposes.
I’m happy to say that Manifold Garden is one of the few first person games I found myself enjoying immensely with little fiddling required. The puzzles are tricky and the lack of hints is definitely not for everyone, but the gorgeous world, tight controls and ease of access make for a fun experience worth playing to the end if you can.